Supporting your Oxford Candidates

Writing a Teachers' Reference

Contextual Data

Three aspects of contextual data will be considered for students applying for an undergraduate course:

1. Prior education

The performance of the applicant’s school or college at GCSE or equivalent level and;

The performance of the applicant’s school or college at A-level or equivalent level.

In both instances a candidate will receive a flag if their educational establishment performs below the national average using Department of Education or equivalent data. GCSE data will consider achievement of both Mathematics and English/Welsh in the school performance information.

Candidates applying from schools who fall within Target 1 of the University’s Access Agreement will also receive a flag. These are schools which historically have had low rates of progression to Oxford.

2. Residential postcode

The postcode that an applicant gives as their home address, assessed using ACORN information. ACORN is a system that associates specific geodemographic profiles to individual UK postcodes; it is widely recognised and used by both the public and private sectors to assist in the effective targeting of policies, services and communications. Where a candidate’s postcode falls into ACORN groups four or five ('Financially Stretched' and 'Urban Adversity') the application will be flagged. More information about ACORN can be found at http://acorn.caci.co.uk.

An additional postcode factor will be used in the flagging for the coming admissions round. The postcode from an applicant’s home address is matched against the POLAR3 data set. This classification places regions into quintiles based on the rate of young participation in Higher Education. Applicants from the lowest two quintiles will be flagged. More information about POLAR3 can be found at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/postcode/.

3. Care background

Whether a candidate has been in care for more than three months (determined from the UCAS application, and subject to later verification checks).

Action to be taken:

Where an applicant is predicted to achieve the grades, and in certain cases subject (s) required to meet the standard conditional offer for a place at Oxford and performs to an appropriate standard in any required pre-interview admissions test, a candidate will be strongly recommended for interview if

They have received a contextual flag for at least one prior education measure
and

They have received a contextual flag for at least one postcode measure

Where a flagged candidate is not shortlisted for interview, an explanation must be provided to the department. This can be followed up by candidates in January, after the admissions interviews have taken place.

Candidates who achieve a flag for being in care for a period of greater than three months, and who are predicted to achieve the grades, and in certain cases subject(s) required to meet the standard conditional offer for a place at Oxford, and perform at an appropriate standard in any required pre-interview test, will also be strongly recommended for interview.

Note that this use of contextual information does not result in either an automatic offer of a place or a lower offer to a candidate. The candidates flagged through use of contextual information are interviewed in addition to students who are shortlisted for interview using the usual departmental interview shortlisting criteria, so they do not displace students who have already demonstrated the expected academic ability and potential.